Since the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, I have been flooded with calls and emails asking for my take on the first American Pope. Insofar as a number of news outlets are questioning the new pontiff’s record on sex abuse, I have penned an Open Letter asking for the new pope’s commitment to securing justice for abuse and reprisal victims and purging the Church of clerics guilty of abuses and cover-ups. I trust that I am not the only person who would appreciate answers to the questions which should lead us to determine if under Leo XIV, the Catholic Church will be a “home for truth-tellers” or a “shelter for predators.”
OPEN LETTER TO POPE LEO XIV
Dear Pope Leo XIV,
When I was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in 1974, it was because I believed that I was responding to a vocation from Christ to “Come, follow Me.” After 30 years of fulfilling ministry as a parish priest, pro-life director, seminary instructor, and a military chaplain which led me to become part of the lives of countless families throughout the world, Dominican Father Thomas Doyle and I were reprised against and coerced into leaving the priesthood by then-Archbishop Edwin O’Brien for our work in exposing sexual abuse and cover-ups in the Catholic Church.
When I was informed in July 2018 by Msgr. Steve Callahan, the Judicial Vicar for the San Diego Diocese, that Pope Francis was willing to laicize me, I told him [at the age of 70] I had no desire to marry, and that if anyone is laicized, it should be the abusive priests and the bishops who covered up and retaliated against me for reporting clerical sexual predation and homosexual misconduct in the military services. I questioned why I should be laicized for telling the truth while only 8 of some 150 bishops met this same fate for engaging in sexual abuse.
I wrote to Bishop McElroy in September 2018, following the publication of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report and Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s “Testimony,” saying that I could never return to ministry as long as Pope Francis and so many bishops continue to cover up the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. At that time McElroy had already covered up the July 2016 abuse report of the late psychotherapist Richard Sipe involving twelve seminarians and priest victims of Theodore McCarrick, as well as the satanic ritual abuse of Rachel Mastrogiacomo.
As a canceled priest, my current “ministry without a parish” has become one of offering guidance to abuse victims who were abandoned by the Church and left on the brink of despair and suicide by bishops who covered up their reports, kept their abusers in ministry, and even threatened their safety.
Because I believe in the authenticity of my priestly vocation, I could see myself returning to ministry if I were praying for “Leo, our Pope” in a Church led by a Pontiff who has banished clergy sex abuse and punished all the bishops who make it possible. Until then, I cannot in good conscience promise my “respect” for a fellow North American College (NAC) alumnus like Cardinal Timothy Dolan whose cover-ups have caused victims to commit suicide, or my “obedience” to prelates in archdioceses like Washington where Christ-like, faithful, and holy priests like Michael Briese are threatened to stop reporting credibly accused predators like Father Adam Park or be laicized.
I am writing you to ascertain if under your leadership, priests like me who are deeply pained by clergy abuses and cover-ups can once again claim the Church as our home, or if predatory bishops and priests who punish truth-tellers will continue to find shelter within walls of silence.
While some in the United States and abroad are celebrating your election, abuse survivors, victims’ advocates, and unjustly dismissed whistleblowers became apprehensive when they read media reports accusing you of covering up abuse including complaints submitted by Maria Quispe Diaz and her two sisters Aura Teresa and Juana Mercedes. As you begin your papal ministry, I hope you will take this occasion to be a Shepherd for all souls, even those who have experienced sexual corruption and cover-ups at the hands of cardinals, bishops and priests.
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